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Thursday, 26 November 2015

Film Review - 'Dredd'

Judge Dredd is a
character with a long, and often very violent, history. The character's
first comic-book appearance was in an issue of the British
science-fiction anthology series, 2000 AD, back in 1977 - and,
his previous film appearance Sylvester Stallone's fan-displeasing
effort, released in 1995 - a film which even someone as unfamiliar with
the source material as I am would have to admit failed in a number of
ways. If there is any character who deserves another chance in film, it
would have to be Judge Dredd. Thankfully, with 2012's Dredd, he received just that.

The film's opening narration tells us everything we need to know
about this bleak world. With much of America reduced to a barren
wasteland, what's left of human civilisation survives in massive
walled-off cities. In these massive cities, desperate citizens struggle
to survive while criminal elements constantly threaten to bring the
whole system crashing down into a state of anarchy. In this bleak and
violent world, the task of enforcing order rests on the shoulders of the
Judges - officers who, essentially, have the power to act as judge,
jury and, if necessary, executioner. In Mega-City One, the most feared
of these is Judge Dredd - a single-minded and terrifyingly efficient
champion of the city's harsh take on the concept of 'justice'.

As the film opens, though, Dredd (Karl Urban) finds himself saddled
with an unwanted responsibility in the form of Cassandra Anderson
(Olivia Thirlby), a young woman who had failed in her training as a
Judge, but who was being given another chance thanks to impressive
psychic abilities. Anderson's abilities would, naturally, make her a
significant asset, and she only failed her final trails by a few points -
so, despite Dredd's obvious disapproval, he is ordered to take her out
for a final assessment.

With Anderson's future as a Judge now resting in Dredd's hands, the
two head out. Responding to what appears to be a fairly routine, if
particularly bloody, act of gang violence, the two Judges make their way
to Peach Trees (one of a variety of massive block-wide buildings which
house the poorer residents of Mega-City One). There, Dredd and Anderson
find themselves crossing paths with Ma-Ma (Lena Headey) - a scarred
former prostitute who managed to claw her way to the top (beginning with
the 'feminization' of her former pimp) and forge herself a criminal
empire on the upper levels of Peach Trees.

Knowing that the Judges are likely to discover that Peach Trees is
actually the production point for Slo-Mo, the newest drug to hit the
streets of Mega-City One (one that significantly alters a user's
perception of time), Ma-Ma moves to seize control of the massive
building's security control room, triggering a lock-down that
effectively seals the building off from the outside world and leaves the
Judges trapped. With no way out, Dredd and Anderson are left with no
other choice but to make their way up to the very top for a
confrontation with Ma-Ma, herself.

It's a simple, but effective, set-up - one that will have all the
pieces in place within the first half-hour, and which allows the film to
get straight to the action. It is also a set-up which, unfortunately,
does not leave much room for moral complexity. In this particular
instance of life in Mega-City One, we're left in no doubt that the
Judges are the heroes and Ma-Ma and her gang are the villains. There
simply isn't room, here, for any exploration of themes of power and
control that you could imagine finding in the Judges, and the role that
they play in this society. We're given the context of a society that
allows its law enforcement to wield considerable power, and we are told a
story that takes place in that world. There may be elements of grim
satire to be found in the comics, but they don't seem to have quite made
it into the film.

In many ways, Dredd barely even qualifies as an actual 'character' in
the traditional sense. He's a one-dimensional figure, at best -
seemingly incapable of any meaningful change or growth. He seems almost
entirely unable to feel any emotion beyond anger. And, he is perfectly
comfortable with extreme acts of violence in his pursuit of justice.
He's the worst sort of generic action hero, basically - but, this time,
that seems to be the entire point. Honestly, in any other context, Judge
Dredd would feel like a bizarre parody character. But, as the faceless
symbol of an extremely harsh from of 'justice' in a bleak dystopian
future, it's actually quite effective. And, he is literally 'faceless',
too, since there is a long-standing rule against ever portraying him
without his iconic helmet (a rule that the previous film broke).

This has been largely true throughout the character's long comic-book
history - and, it is just as true here. The character that we are
introduced to early on is really everything that fans of the comics
could hope for. He is aggressive and single-minded - and, most
importantly, with the exception of one teasing glimpse of the back of
his head during a fairly typical 'gearing up' scene, the film is
entirely committed to the idea of keeping Judge Dredd's face obscured.
This, of course, leaves Karl Urban with the formidable task of bringing
this character to life using only the lower half of his face. Sure, the
constant growled dialogue and the exaggerated frowns might be a bit over
the top, at times - but, it's actually quite impressive to see how good
a job Urban does, here. Instead of the awkward caricature we could have
ended up with, Urban is able to give us a figure who comes across as
genuinely threatening. He is certainly much more threatening than any of
the film's actual villains.

The cost of all of this, though, is that Dredd essentially remains
the same blank-slate throughout the entire film. By the end, the
audience wont know him any better than they did at the start. But,
again, this seems to be entirely intentional. One scene early on, where
Anderson uses her psychic abilities on Dredd, even seems to be set up as
a deliberate tease - with Anderson suggesting that she can sense
something of who Dredd really is beneath his anger, only to be
interrupted before she can actually reveal anything to the audience. It
felt like it was the film's clever little way of both acknowledging
Dredd's essentially one-dimensional character and telling us to just
accept it and move on.

The film may be called Dredd, and he may feature
prominently, but it should be fairly clear by now that it isn't really
his story we are watching. That honor goes to Anderson, herself - with
Olivia Thirlby doing a great job of giving us the emotional character
arc that we were never going to get with Dredd. She certainly counts as
the more traditional 'hero' of the film, too. While Dredd is
frighteningly certain of his role, Anderson seems to display some degree
of uncertainty. And, while Dredd remains static and unchanging
throughout the course of the film, Anderson is allowed to grow and
change. Her psychic ability, which may initially seem a bit out of place
in a futuristic world that seems grounded in some degree of realism, is
also put to good use throughout the course of the film.

The film's villains, meanwhile, seem to exist only to justify the
harsh action that needs to be taken to stop them - though, in that role,
they perform admirably. Lena Headey is genuinely threatening as Ma-Ma
(not quite as threatening as Dredd, himself, maybe - but, then, that's a
tough act to follow). She is violent and cruel, but also clearly
intelligent - and, the fact that she can get all of this across without
ever actually raising her voice is very impressive. Her lieutenant Kay
(Wood Harris), on the other hand, spends much of the film as a prisoner
of the two judges, which limits his opportunities to be truly
'villainous'. But, he still gets his moments to shine - including a
chance to engage in something of a psychic battle with Anderson which
counts as one of the film's most creative and interesting sequences.

There may not be much in the way of large-scale action set-pieces,
here, but the action we are given is often tense, and genuinely
exciting. The inclusion of the Slo-Mo drug even gives us an in-story
justification for the inclusion of some entertainingly bloody
slow-motion additions to the film's action. I'll admit that I don't
fully understand what the appeal of this drug is really supposed to be
for its user - but, it does make things more entertaining for the
audience.

In the end, Dredd an entertaining, if particularly grim and
bloody, action film. It's really just a shame that the film's
disappointing performance at the box office means that there isn't going
to be a sequel - because, I would have liked to have seen how a
follow-up film would have played out. Fans of the character can be
satisfied that they have at least one good live-action adaptation of Judge Dredd, at least - so, there's that.